India Inc feels GDPR compliance will make them data safe: Study

Over two-thirds of Indian enterprises view the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an opportunity to make their organisation more data secure and stay ahead of competition, reveals a joint study conducted by Deloitte and Data Security Council of India (DSCI).

While GDPR compliance is seen as a differentiator on the one hand, close to 60% of the respondents believe that the GDPR privacy principles will have an impact over the automated processing of data introduced with the help of machines learning (ML) and AI.

According to the survey in India, 28% of the small organisations are yet to initiate their journey towards GDPR. Out of the organisations that have taken action for GDPR readiness, 80% have conducted general awareness campaigns for all relevant stakeholders to identify their processes, which access personal or sensitive data.


“Our survey findings also infer that GDPR can be the new business opportunity for Indian firms. The need of the hour for India Inc is to develop a strategic roadmap of adoption for this policy that is transparent and further allows them to build the next layer of customer trust,” said Vishal Jain, Partner, Deloitte India.

With respect to sectors, IT/ BPM, Health, Ecommerce, Manufacturing and Pharma are the frontrunners of the GDPR readiness journey. Across the board the right to data probability, right to erasure, and right to restriction of processing was found to be the most challenging data subject rights.

The need to avoid legal and contractual liabilities, fines and penalties turned out to be the biggest motivator for GDPR compliance. Over 60% of the respondents worried about penalties due to non-compliance.

Rama Vedashree, CEO of DSCI said “EU has been a key geography for Indian IT and has been servicing customers across several verticals including public sector… Given EU GDPR, and impending India’s Data Protection Law, stepping up focus on Data protection practices and capability building, is a key imperative to satisfy expectations of customers and consumers.”

The report also notes that IT/ BPM sector was the most responsive sector in terms of taking any steps towards GDPR readiness with 84% having started readiness journey.
28% of the small organisations in India are yet to initiate their journey towards GDPR.